Honor Among Thieves
by otherrealmwriter
Summary: While traveling to Ecruteak City, Ash Misty and Brock and put under hypnosis so a Team Rocket grunt can steal Pikachu for their plans. But what happens when Jessie, James and Meowth see that someone else is stealing their mark? Written for the Writer's Anonymous Role Reversal Challenge.


**I do not own Pokemon okay? This is written for the WA Role Reversal challenge. I had been looking for a reason to write a Pokemon fic for awhile and this one came to mind. It will take place in Johto based a lot off the anime. But enough of this A/N, on with the fic.**

Ash, Misty, Brock and Pikachu had just finished their travels in Goldenrod City and now were heading to Ecruteak City to battle the next gym leader in the Johto league. Feeling optimistic from his latest victory in Goldenrod City against Whitney, Ash was strutting along, looking at his brand new Plain Badge with Pikachu on his shoulder.

"Three gyms down!" Ash said as Pikachu perked up on his shoulder and yelled, "Pika!" and held out his arm with a thumbs up.

"Now don't get too cocky Ash," Misty said. "You still have 5 more to go before you even enter the Johto league."

"I know that!" Ash said. "And I am going to mop the floor with them all!"

Misty scoffed at Ash's confidence, but Brock sighed. "Relax Misty, let him have this. He won that badge and that Miltank of Whitney's was a tough one. Great job there!"

"If I am going to be a Pokemon Master, I have to learn to think on my feet like that." Ash said as he and the rest of his traveling companions walked by a bush, ignorant of what was waiting for them on the other side.

In the bushes was a Team Rocket grunt. This particular grunt was on a mission. Find electric type pokemon for their latest project, which was a sound to induce evolution that they were working on up at the Lake of Rage. He had his Drowzee out, ready to use hypnosis on anyone who was careless enough to come by with just the type of pokemon he needed. He lay on the ground and sighed. "This is boring. I thought being in a criminal gang would be more fun, you know Drowzee?"

"Drow..." Drowzee nodded and stood beside his trainer.

"I haven't seen one electric type pokemon all day! Why can't they just ask the boss for those Electrodes he has stashed at headquarters? This is nuts!" The grunt said as he looked up upon hearing Ash, Misty and Brock talk. He jumped up in excitement and looked up at Ash's shoulder. "He's got a pikachu! That's what they need!" the grunt then turned to Drowzee, "You know what to do!"

Drowzee nodded and started to perform hypnosis "Drowzee, Drowzee,Drowzee..." He repeated.

Misty started to yawn, "I'm feeling sleepy, you too Togepi?" She asked as she looked down at Togepi who went, "Preeee..." and curled up into an egg shaped ball and fell asleep. Misty headed to the edge of the road and sat down. "I think I am going to take a nap right here."

"We can't just..." Brock said as he fell down and fell asleep himself.

"Guys!" Ash started to yell but fell on top of Brock and lay at Misty's feet asleep.

"Pikcaaaa..." Pikachu said as he fell next to Ash and lay asleep.

Meanwhile, Jesse, James and Meowth were walking along holding their stomachs in pain. It had been days since they had a good meal and the only thing they had eaten the day before were a few rice balls and one jelly donut a piece. They were following Ash after his adventures in Goldenrod to try and capture his pikachu and hand it over to their boss.

"I'm so hungry..." Meowth said as he walked along.

"Me too..." Jessie said.

"Me three..." James said as they slumped over and walked along. They did not want to have to call the boss and ask for an advance on their pay; he was still mad at them for letting the Viridian City gym he ran get destroyed.

"Being the one of the bad guys is rough." James moaned.

Meowth looked up and suddenly saw something that made him forget his hunger. "I think we got a payday coming!"

"You know the boss is still garnishing 95% of our salary to pay for the damages to the gym!" Jessie said.

"And we just got paid two days ago." James said.

"Look ahead of you, you two knuckleheads!" Meowth said as he saw Ash, Misty, Brock and Pikachu laying on the ground in the middle of the road asleep.

"Ooooooh!" Jessie cooed. "It's like my birthday and Christmas came early and I got everything I ever wanted." She then looked at James and Meowth. "Besides, it is my birthday."

"I know I forgot something." James said hitting himself on the forehead for forgetting Jessie's birthday.

Meowth paused them and looked ahead. "This may not be as easy as we thought..."

"What do you mean?" James asked as the Team Rocket grunt came out of the bushes with his Drowzee. The grunt carefully tapped Misty, then Brock and finally Ash before he picked up the sleeping pikachu and put it in a brown sack. James perked up and yelled, "He's stealing the twerp's pikachu!"

"That's our job!" Jessie said as she ran over to the grunt. She grabbed his shirt and shook the fellow Team Rocket member. "Just what do you think you are doing?"

"The boss needs an electric type for his latest project. What you didn't know about that?" He laughed. "It's been the talk of the gang for weeks now. You must not be important enough." 

"I'm one of the boss's favorites!" Meowth said as he jumped up and performed Fury Swipes on the grunt's face scratching him up.

"Yeah..." The grunt said as he put the bag over his shoulder. "But hey, I got the job done for you, so no need to worry. Go steal a few rattata or something like that."

"That pikachu is ours to steal!" James said as he came up to Jessie to help her out. "Put it back and let us take it!"

"Nah, I think not." The grunt said. "Is this going to take awhile? I have to meet my contact in 30 minutes."

"I guess if we're not going to convince you to let us steal the pikachu, we'll have to fight you for it!"Jessie said. "Go Arbok!" She said as she threw a pokeball out.

"Wobbuffet!" Her newly acquired Wobbuffet said as he came out of his pokeball.

"I said Arbok! You are not Arbok!" Jessie said as she pulled out Wobbuffet's pokeball. "Return!" She said.

"You too Victreebel!" James said and with a screech, was swallowed in it's wide mouth. "Hey don't eat me, I need you to fight them!" With this, James was spit out and fell on the ground next to the grass-type pokemon.

The Rocket grunt laughed at them with a scoff. "You need the two of you to fight me? HA!" The grunt pulled out a pokeball of his own and threw it out. "Raticate, go!"

"Rata!" Raticate said.

"Arbok, poison sting!" Jessie said as the grunt's raticate jumped aside.

"Raticate, use bite!" The gunt said as the rat pokemon headed towards Arbok.

"Victreebel, vine whip!" James commanded as before Raticate could bite Arbok, it hit the rat and it fell at the grunt's feet.

"Come here you rat!" Meowth said, feeling like he needed to join in to help preserve his team's honor. With this, Meowth scratched the raticate's face and caused it to fall to the ground.

"Rata..." Raticate said as the Rocket grunt recalled him to his pokeball.

"So, three against one..." the grunt said as he got a call on his cell phone. "Hold on a minute, we're not done here."

"Isn't it rude to take a call during a battle?" James said looking annoyed at the grunt.

"So?" The grunt said as he answered the phone. "Huh? Uh huh? Really, so they're going with the Electrode plan? But I already got a pikachu? What do you want me to do with it? Don't want a pikachu right now? I don't want it! I hate pikachus! Never got why everyone likes those electric mice. Well, I guess I'll just let it go. I'll meet you at the Lake of Rage then. Yes mam, I'll see you there."

"What was that all about?" Jessie asked as the grunt smiled and hung up his phone.

"I don't need this mouse after all. The boss used the plan I thought was better anyway." The grunt said as he walked away. He looked at the bag that had the sleeping pikachu and back to Jessie, James and Meowth. "Look, I feel sorry for you, so if you want it so bad, catch!" He said as he carelessly tossed the sack with Pikachu in it to the team.

Jessie, James, Meowth, Arbok and Victreebel all ran around in a panic to try and catch Pikachu and make sure the mouse came to no harm. Victreebel extended its vine whip and caught the bag and handed it over to Jessie and James. James took the bag greedily and smiled. "You know what this means right?" He asked.

"We finally got the twerp's pikachu!" Meowth said excitedly as Jessie let out a depressed sigh. "What's wrong."

"We didn't really steal that pikachu. That grunt did and gave it to us like some hand me down when he found out they didn't want it for whatever assignment he was on. If we are going to hand Pikachu over to the boss, it is going to be when we beat the twerps, and not take some grunt's scraps." Jessie said.

"But Jess..." James said as he held up the sack despondently.

"Yes I know the boss would want the pikachu, but it's not the same if we don't steal it ourselves and hand over our victory to the boss." Jessie said.

"I see what you mean. Still would have been nice to have this be how we won." Meowth said.

"Really?" Jessie said looking at Meowth.

"Guess not..." Meowth said as he headed over to Ash, Misty and Brock with the sack Pikachu was still asleep in. "Wakey wakey!" He said as he clawed their faces to wake them up.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ash said in pain as he woke up and looked over at Team Rocket. "Team Rocket, what are you doing here? Trying to steal Pikachu?" Ash looked around, "Where is Pikachu?"

"You probably put us to sleep so you could take him!" Misty said as she woke up.

"Pikachu's right here." Meowth said pointing to the sack. "And no, that plan is just dumb. You'll want to be more careful, there's bad people about who will do stupid things to steal pokemon. And I didn't think the road would be very comfortable." He taunted.

Ash ran over to the bag to find Pikachu inside it. "Chu!" Pikachu said as he woke up and jumped into Ash's arms.

"You're okay!" Ash said as he hugged Pikachu. "I almost lost you!"

"We would never sink so low as to rely on putting people to sleep to take their pokemon. Not our style. We want you to know who stole from you." Jessie said.

"Guess we did our good deed for the day." James said as he walked along, recalling Victreebel.

"Guess so." Meowth agreed following James.

"Don't think we've changed twerp." Jessie said as she recalled Arbok and headed to join James and Meowth. "We're still after Pikachu, but we aren't scum. We'll met again."

"I'm sure of it." Misty said.

As Brock woke up, he looked at the road where Team Rocket was walking away. "So let me get this straight, Team Rocket _**SAVED**_ Pikachu and gave him back to us?"

"Seems like it." Ash said confused.

"Guess there is even honor among thieves..." Misty said as they continued on their travels.

 **So how was that? Good? Bad? Short? Funny? Let me know in a review. Like I said, this was for the Writer's Anonymous Role Reversal Challenge and the idea that Jessie, James and Meowth save Pikachu as to steal him is kind of a reversal. And I know the fight was wimpy there but I wanted to play on the comedic side here. And I wanted to work a little of the games in there, that's the reference to the Electrodes at the Lake of Rage base. And of course had to work in a rice ball being called jelly donut in the English dub joke. But anyway, remember to read, (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,**

 **otherrealmwriter**

 **aka**

 **Realm**


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